classified US military video depicting the indiscriminate slaying of over a dozen people in the Iraq

I hesitate to post this, but the truth must known.

Warning: the video is graphic.

http://collateralmurder.org/

From wikileaks:

Reuters has been trying to obtain the video through the Freedom of Information Act, without success since the time of the attack. The video, shot from an Apache helicopter gun-site, clearly shows the unprovoked slaying of a wounded Reuters employee and his rescuers. Two young children involved in the rescue were also seriously wounded.

The military did not reveal how the Reuters staff were killed, and stated that they did not know how the children were injured.

After demands by Reuters, the incident was investigated and the U.S. military concluded that the actions of the soldiers were in accordance with the law of armed conflict and its own “Rules of Engagement”.

Consequently, WikiLeaks has released the classified Rules of Engagement for 2006, 2007 and 2008, revealing these rules before, during, and after the killings.

WikiLeaks has released both the original 38 minutes video and a shorter version with an initial analysis. Subtitles have been added to both versions from the radio transmissions.

WikiLeaks obtained this video as well as supporting documents from a number of military whistleblowers. WikiLeaks goes to great lengths to verify the authenticity of the information it receives. We have analyzed the information about this incident from a variety of source material. We have spoken to witnesses and journalists directly involved in the incident.

WikiLeaks wants to ensure that all the leaked information it receives gets the attention it deserves. In this particular case, some of the people killed were journalists that were simply doing their jobs: putting their lives at risk in order to report on war. Iraq is a very dangerous place for journalists: from 2003- 2009, 139 journalists were killed while doing their work.

Dan – thanks for posting this. I felt sad when I heard the Apache pilots requesting permission to “engage” the targets. Having been in similiar situations – with (armed) bodyguards – sometimes I feel like my cameras are weapons too. Horrendous stuff to watch.

Sometimes I forget the reality of the situation on the ground in conflict zones…it is easy to get lost in the romanticism of war reporting-revelations like this slam me (and my heart) back on the ground.

“It should be evident, based on this video, that although modern aerial platforms can collect a stunning amount of data, the most useful intelligence still comes from human networks, infantrymen on the ground, and the Mk-I eyeball.”

Someone else posted this link on a previously but just in case you haven’t seen it. More background material on Iraq massacre leak (http://www.boingboing.net/2010/04/05/wikileaks-more-backg.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+boingboing%2FiBag+%28Boing+Boing%29)

Does Canon make a 2400mm f64 lens shaped like an RPG-7? Gitzo make a tripod that looks like an AK-47?

That’s not to say the military didn’t screw the pooch here, but how about a little critical thinking folks? Don’t they teach that in journalism 101? Sad how everyone is getting all frothed up, calling people nazis, so sure that everyone there was innocent, because they read it on a site called Collateral MURDER. Clearly sounds unbiased to me.

That said, there’s not much unbiased info here. So the best you can do is read info from both sides and come to your own conclusion. What doesn’t seem to be reported though is what they US military said in their own investigation after the incident, before this story blew up:

“We remained above the engagement site while Bushmaster sent ground forces to the site. Bushmaster arrived and reported 11 x AIFKIA and found RPGs and RPG rounds at the site. We also witnessed a loaded RPG lying 2-3 blocks south of the engagement site. Bushmaster reported that the first child was wounded and pulled from the van. We were unable to determine that there were children in the vehicle and never saw any children prior to or during the engagement. After viewing the gun tape, were able to determine that both wounded children came from the van. Bushmaster immediately MEDEVAC’d both girls to FOB Loyalty for medical care.”

these links passed on to me by a public affairs officer, both speak to the transformational period in information distribution we’re experiencing:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20100406/ts_ynews/ynews_ts1490

“…the simple fact of the video’s release also reflects the ongoing revolution in how news gets produced and published. The group, called WikiLeaks, released the Pentagon video on Monday. Less than 24 hours later, the clip had netted more than 1.3 million viewers on YouTube alone…

The material was encrypted with a code, and we broke the code," WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange told wired.com. “In terms of journalism efficiency, I think we discovered a lot with a small amount of resources.”

But this was much more than a question of cracking an encryption code from a renegade PC. WikiLeaks also reported the story the old-fashioned way â€” by sending two reporters to Baghdad to research the 2007 incident. The group says its correspondents verified the story by interviewing witnesses and family members of people killed and injured in the attack. These accounts helped to flesh out the gaps in the official account of the incident; as the materials at CollateralMurder.com explain, the “military did not reveal how the Reuters staff were killed, and stated that they did not know how the children were injured.” And now that silence is starting to abate: In response to the release of the WikiLeaks video, the Pentagon has circulated some documents relating to the incident, and MSNBC reported this morning that American soldiers mistook a camera held by one of the fallen journalists for a weapon."

http://blog.ajmartinez.com/2010/04/05/wikileaks-collateral-murder/

“…Between 3:13 and 3:30 it is quite clear to me, as both a former infantry sergeant and a photographer, that the two men central to the gun-cameraâ€™s frame are carrying photographic equipment. This much is noted by WikiLeaks, and misidentified by the crew of Crazyhorse 18. At 3:39, the men central to the frame are armed, the one on the far left with some AK variant, and the one in the center with an RPG. The RPG is crystal clear even in the downsized, very low-resolution, video between 3:40 and 3:45 when the man carrying it turns counter-clockwise and then back to the direction of the Apache. This all goes by without any mention whatsoever from WikiLeaks, and that is unacceptable.

…The point at which I cannot support the actions of Crazyhorse 18, at all, comes when the van arrives somewhere around 9:45 and is engaged. Unless someone had jumped out with an RPG ready to fire on the aircraft, there was no threat warranting a hail of 30mm from above. Might it have been prudent to follow the vehicle (perhaps with a UAV), or at least put out a BOLO (Be On the Look Out) for the vehicle? Absolutely without question. Was this portion of the engagement even remotely understandable, to me? No, it was not."

“This site is about sharing information. I started blogging many years ago using a python script I ran through a shell on an old P233MMX that acted as my webserver. The whole blogging concept didnâ€™t really exist at that point, but I had fun with it anyway. Eventually, I ended up in the Army (11B) and went to Iraq twice with the 3rd Brigade 3rd Infantry Division. Blogging became the quickest, and most reliable, way for me to keep my friends and family informed. While I could not divulge a variety of information, anything I posted helped relax the people I cared about. If I was posting, I was alive.

So, here youâ€™ll find a variety of opinions. Some arenâ€™t even my opinions, just links to things I found to be worth reading. Sometimes I just post photos. Sometimes I write incredibly long entries. Sometimes I have nothing much to say at all. The theme of this all is that this is who I am. If it matters to me, Iâ€™ll probably mention it here at some point."

Tommy, you avoid my first part of the sentence. And yes, shot to people without weapons, only a trace of humanity to help someone wounded, is really a nazi thing. Not a brave one. Review your 101 lessons of journalism, I am sure in some part the book said to read well and view all the tape before comment. You can put the part of van in the video here too. I know that nobody is innocent but i know too that there are something very evil there. The sad is that some people don’t reckon it.

Andy nailed it there. Regardless of whatever was seen, it cannot be deemed as “threatening” to the crew of that Apache – Therefore, their attack was senseless and unjustifiable. It wouldn’t be causing such a worldwide media ruckus if it weren’t.

We are seven years into this war, and for those of us who covered it like myself, this video is a definitive answer to how we failed. If any case could be made for justifying the initial attack because weapons were seen and thought to be seen, that case evaporates upon examining any “rules of engagement” which permit opening fire on a van coming to pick up the wounded and the bodies.

The people must have been able to see and hear the helicopter above them. They trusted that because they were not doing anything combative, that they would be OK. Their trust should have been justified, but it was fatally not.

And after thousands of incidents like this, the vast, vast majority of which were not filmed, did not involve journalists working for an international news agency, most of the population turned against the American effort.

Many thanks Tommy, I don’t knew that argument. I don’t share the same ideas but i know we can dissent with respect from both sides. I appreciate you low the tone from your first comment, not common in the last times here in lightstalkers. Anyway, the important thing is this relevant news. Everybody can choose the adjective for the people that shot the guns. Anyone knows how goes this issue after the diffusion of this video?

Tommy: Godwin’s law is a funny one – I think it’s paramount to ignorance of logic. Our society was essentially reborn after the Second World War – The fact that the Nazi’s or Nazi Germany comes up frequently in arguments “irregardless of relevance” is a painfully blind statement to make, considering the society you’re living in formed from the social fallout of those events. It wasn’t called a ‘World War’ for nothing, it wouldn’t have started without them and the world would be a drastically, drastically different place had it never occured. (EDIT: For instance, America wouldn’t be the superpower they are which, hypothetically, could mean they wouldn’t even be in Iraq. When talking about war, casualties of war, misdeeds of war, it is only natural that at some point we’d turn to the most prevalant example of why Wars should not be fought.)

Alan’s right – People wonder why the Iraqi population have turned against their ‘liberators’? Think again.

“Among the dead were individuals who were apparently being paid by Reuters as journalists. I am not suggesting that merely being employed by Reuters was grounds for killing them, but Reuters was notorious for hiring insurgents to obtain â€œnewsâ€ for them when said stringers were not helping to manufacture propaganda for the insurgency, so count me as unimpressed by the concern about danger posed to journalists.”

Debating about if the soldiers are guilty or not have not more sense to me since i have my opinion as others have. The important thing is: are they involved in a justice process or all this are limited to the web?

There’s a man with a RPG, they’re sitting in an Apache in a war zone. They shoot, no surprise. Innocents get killed, it’s very sad. Necessary? Perhaps not. Ce la guerre. There’s no clean wars. But when they open fire on the makeshift ambulance, that’s really really poor judgement. Perhaps they’re still on some sort of kill thrill. War is Hell.

“really poor judgment” ? Is that all? I believe it is a direct violation of the Geneva Convention to fire upon anyone attending the wounded. Forget about Reuters, forget about insurgents for a moment — if the people wounded and killed were 100% combatants — it would STILL be wrong to shoot at them. It really is that simple. War may be hell, but there are laws of war. There are NO excuses to break them. Honorable armies fight honorable wars.

Sometimes, if a unit has suffered heavy casualties or has a high percentage of inexperienced officers, or something truly traumatic is going on, bad things may happen. Lt. Calley at My Lai was an example of a poor officer leading a draftee unit that had taken casualties. The American massacre of SS guards at Dachau is an example of reacting to a truly traumatic scene.

Almost none of that is true, or should be true, of our Army in Iraq. Casualties are low by historic measurements. Our officer corps is unquestionably the best educated in our history. IEDs and suicide bombings may be horrific, but by 2007 we were pretty used to them and I wouldn’t call them truly traumatic to anyone who had been there a while. (long term PTSD another issue entirely.)

So, where does a US helicopter go off shooting up a group of people because they’re armed (though not doing anything remotely threatening at that moment) — and even if that’s OK — where do you go from there to shooting up the van coming to get the wounded? The pilot’s voice can be heard: “They’re picking up weapons and bodies.” — uh, the weapons part was pure speculation, let’s take the sighting of the actual RPG and AK + the supposed weapons the two Reuters men were carrying, at MOST you’re looking at 1 RPG + 3 AK….weigh that against picking up at least one wounded but clearly alive casualty…and they shoot?!?

And these pilots know that they have a camera on their aircraft, they know that their radio transmissions are recorded. WHICHMEANSTHEY DON’T THINK THEY"RE DOINGANYTHINGWRONG. An attitude which the not-very-serious inquiry AGREED with. So, what ARE the rules of engagement?

That everybody thinks it’s OK to shoot the wounded?

I spent six months in Iraq in 2003 and 2005. I had no problem with certain kinds of aggressive tactics, once the (unjustifiable) decision was made to go to war. After that fait accompli, you weren’t go to find anyone sane arguing to restore Saddam, no matter how much they might not like the war. So I agree with Colin Powell’s Pottery Barn rule — once in, we became responsible — no matter how right or wrong the initial choice. Keeping that in mind, since when does that make it OK to ignore the Geneva Convention?!?

Have a draft, send an army 4 or 5 times the size of the one we sent, have summary trials and hang insurgents from the lampposts after they’re duly tried and convicted. Go ahead. But shooting at the wounded, at civilians, that is absolutely unjustified NO MATTERWHAT. There should be a new investigation into this incident, that is the only reasonable response. Let’s see what the Army does.

Honor is not a popular word or idea these days. Perhaps it needs to be again.

I believe a good way to show the world, that we believe in justice, is to arrest the two pilots at GuantÃ¡namo, till they have their fair trial. It would show very clear, that “bad” and “good” things happen on both side in war time. And that we care for this.

A good book on this topic was written by Oriana Fallaci. It covered the war in Vietnam. I just recall the German caption.It was called “Wir, Engel und Bestien”.

I believe the greatest problem of the US is at the moment that they look to much outside their country to find things that should be improved. There is so much to be done at home. (Their are improvements one canÂ´t deny, like the health care of Obama.) And war cost far too much. What can you do with all the money throne to hell, oh excuse me I mean war.

I think the problem of the US has been this gigantic amount of money has been committed to the military budget and spending. Once this much of money has been committed, “it has to be used” and finding things wrong outside the US has worked as a good excuse so far. I would expect that the situation will continue unless the domestic problems worsen and the people in the US wake up to the problem.

“According to an investigation by the 1st Air Cavalry Brigade, the aircrew â€œaccurately assessed that the criteria to find and terminate the threat to friendly forces were met in accordance with the law of armed conflict and rules of engagement.â€ The report concluded that the attack helicopters positively identified the threat, established hostile intent, conducted appropriate collateral damage assessment and received clearance to fire.

Whatâ€™s more, the military indirectly blamed the reporters for being in the company of â€œarmed insurgentsâ€ and making no effort to identify themselves as journalists. An investigating officer with the 2nd Brigade Combat Team (BCT), 2nd Infantry Division, concluded that â€œthe cameramen made no effort to visibly display their status as press (.pdf) or media representativesâ€ and added that â€œtheir familiar behavior with, and close proximity to, the armed insurgents and their furtive attempts to photograph the Coalition Ground Forces made them appear as hostile combatants to the Apaches that engaged them.â€ A long telephoto lens, the officer says, could have been mistaken for a rocket-propelled grenade.

Itâ€™s also clear, however, that the military quickly figured out that they had inadvertently killed two Reuters employees, and that two children had been seriously wounded in the incident. During â€œsensitive site exploitation,â€ members of the ground unit recovered cameras and media cards from the scene, and were able to identify pictures shot by a Reuters employee at a coalition news conference.

…Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks, who reviewed the findings, ordered that â€œmembers of the press be encouraged to wear identifying vests or distinctive body armor within the MND-B AOR,â€ or Multi-National Division-Baghdad area of responsibility, although he directed that such action be â€œpassed to PAO [public affairs office] for coordination through CPIC [Coalition Press Information Center].â€

A recommendation was also made for a condolence payment to the families of the two children injured in the attack. According to WikiLeaks, no such payment was ever made."

“Very few veterans can return to the battlefield and summon the moral courage to confront what they did as armed combatants. Wallowing in their pain and at times in self-pity, they are often incapable of facing the human suffering and death they inflicted, especially on the defenseless and the weak. They have a habit of disregarding, as they did during the war, the people who live in the lands they brutalized. Walking among the very human beings who bear the scars of war, they see only their own ghosts…..War is necrophilia. And this necrophilia is central to soldiering, just as it is central to the makeup of suicide bombers and terrorists. The necrophilia is hidden under platitudes about duty or comradeship.â€-Chris Hodges

“What a country calls its vital… interests are not things that help its people live, but things that help it make war.”-Simone Weil

“One more such victory and we are undone.”-Pyrrhus of Epirus

watched this last week….couldn’t sleep….showed my 15 year old son….

grief grief nothing but grief….

we are ALL nothing but ghosts at this point in time, it seems to me…..

that those children grow to be wiser and stronger and if possible more forgiving than we …..

Their is a terrific work from a photographer, who made portraits from soldiers before they went to war (Irac and Afganistan). And then he (or she) made a portrait of the same soldiers after they had been at least one year in war zone. When they come back from war they just look dead. Its like in the film “Down by law” when Roberto Benini says: “If looks could kill, I’m now dead.” These soldiers bring the death back to their homecountry. They infect their neighbors with their deadness.

One of the things I found most disturbing about the video is that it is so similar to video games that teenagers are playing now. You spend hour after hour perfecting your gaming skills, then become an Apache pilot. People become things. No wonder weÂ´re all “becoming ghosts”, Bob.